Finland’s Ministry of Transport and Communications is to decommission its GSM-R network and switch to VIRVE – the national telecommunications network used by the police and military.
The decision to adopt VIRVE has been made because of problems with GSM-R phones and cost of upgrading the existing technology.
In order to stop using GSM-R, the Finnish government need to apply to the European Commission for an exception to the current European interoperability standards.
In a statement, the ministry said: “Work is being done at the EU level to find a successor to the present GSM-R radio system. The Government feels that it would be most appropriate and least expensive to shift over to using the VIRVE authority network pending a decision at the EU level on a new system.
“The investment and running costs of the VIRVE network would be significantly lower than those which would be incurred from continuing to use GSM-R, in upgrading the radio network and the communications system for traffic managers.”
Finland is currently using the RAILI radio system – a GSM-R network. The government said the system suffers from interference from commercial networks and weakens onboard mobile phone reception.
